


Fireballs and Flamethrowers

by sanerontheinside



Series: Prompts Tumbl'd [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 14:32:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8536822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanerontheinside/pseuds/sanerontheinside
Summary: Prompt: Hardcase/Dogma, "your vote of confidence is overwhelming." Fluffy and cracky please!





	

“It’s a clean break, nothing to worry about,” Hardcase declared a little _too_ cheerfully.

Kix growled something under his breath - “Nothing to worry about, my ass,” maybe - as he stooped to examine the leg. “Wouldn’t be if I had something to set this with,” he griped. “They took the _beskar'gam,_ even. Smart bastards.”

“Did you see the flamethrowers though?” Hardcase broke in. “Real flamethrowers!”

Kix shrugged. “And the guards have flamethrowers.”

The comm crackled - with choked laughter, probably, though it was hard to tell. “Thanks. Good to know for, uh, extraction purposes. Or at least it would be, if we hadn’t already seen ten of ‘em. How did he break his leg? And why are we still able to talk to you?”

“Dogma pulled a pair of comms out of the buckets before they got them,” Kix sighed. Assuming they ever got their faces back, his and Dogma’s might prove a bit beyond repair.

There was a distinct pause at the other end. It was followed by “ _How?_ ” - overlaid with “I need to learn that trick.”

Kix had other concerns. “Jesse _no,_ ” he snapped. “You are not taking apart your bucket.” He heard a guilty sniff, but even Rex’s startled question betrayed reverence for Dogma’s bit of quick thinking and no small dose of curiosity.

Hardcase grinned. “I fell.”

“Fell?”

“He fell,” Kix confirmed, schooling his tone and expression to absolute neutrality. ‘Down three levels of the base after taking out the control room’ remained stubbornly unspoken, though completely characteristic of Hardcase. Rex and Jesse were sure to assume something of a similar magnitude, anyway. No Mandalorian, certainly none of the _vodé_ could ever fail to appreciate the mad brilliance and raw destructive power of what he’d rigged up, of course, but _now was not the time for that_ as far as Kix was concerned.

“Uh-huh,” Jesse finally replied, easily reading the medic’s tone. “Fell. Okay. So, to summarise: you got yourselves caught and stuffed in a cell because _someone_ almost got themselves blown up. Don’t bother answering that - Dogma, can I get a confirm?”

“He’s not here,” Kix sighed, passing a hand over his face.

Rex might as well have been right there for how the sharp inhale carried over the channel. Kix almost could see the Captain’s whole frame snap to attention. “Where is he? Did they -”

“Ventilation shaft,” Hardcase spat with distaste.

“He’s taken the other comm and gone dark for a bit,” Kix added.

There was another slight pause. “Why?” Rex asked - very carefully.

“We caught a glance of some stuff on their computers in the control room.” Kix hummed thoughtfully. “Looked a uncomfortably like a design for a new and unfriendly virus. Related to Blue Shade, but a bit more sneaky. Thought we could destroy the lab at the least, but none of us are slicers -”

“And since fire fixes everything,” Hardcase cut in with a too-sharp smile. “Only Kix won’t let me go out and set it.”

Kix waved him down sternly. “You planned out where to set the charges and exactly how the whole thing will blow. You’ve done enough, and don’t even think about moving.”

“Well why not?” Hardcase was pouting, which turned out to be surprisingly endearing.

“You’ll get yourself killed,” Kix snapped. “Or ruin any chance of setting that leg properly. Dogma can blow up their lab just fine.”

“But it won’t be _me,_ ” Hardcase fairly whined. At Kix’s stern glare though, he subsided and shrugged - albeit with a disappointed huff. “He might do, I suppose.”

“Your vote of confidence is overwhelming,” Dogma retorted dryly, hissing into his comm suddenly.

Kix very nearly jumped, and the hushed mutter of Rex and Jesse’s voices on comms abruptly cut off. They hadn’t realised Dogma had been listening in. There was a long beat of silence, then - “Sorry,” Hardcase replied a bit sheepishly.

“You’d better be,” Dogma snapped. “I’ve had to deal with three sets of guards because of you.”

“Nothing you couldn’t handle, I’m sure,” Hardcase smirked.

“That’s beside the point.”

“Hey, Dogma, bring me back a flamethrower, it’ll make me feel better.”

Caught between disbelief at the ease of the exchange - the _banter_ \- Kix utterly missed Hardcase’s request by a good half second. “No - absolutely not!” he sputtered.

Jesse, though, immediately undermined that protest when he burst into laughter. “Kix, if anything’ll keep him quiet,” he hinted.

“He’ll set fire to half the _Valiant_! Rex!”

Rex wasn’t in the mood to argue one way or another. “I’m willing to consider it if it’ll keep him from blowing up the other half.”

“And General Skywalker would love it!” Hardcase declared, with certainty and enthusiasm that Kix couldn’t help but envy, honestly.

“Doubtful,” Dogma muttered. “He’d just take it apart and make it deadlier.”

“Exactly.”

Well, Kix had to hand it to them, that did sound real enough.

“Uh,” Dogma began suddenly, then paused. His comm line crackled while everyone else took this as their cue to fall into an expectant quiet.

“Tiny bit of a problem,” he offered after a moment.

“Ugh, see?” Hardcase immediately offered. “I should’ve done it.”

Kix shook his head wearily. “Not even up for discussion.”

“Not sure it would’ve helped, anyway,” Dogma seemed to shrug. “There isn’t actually a lab here.”

“Then what is there?”

“They’ve, um, they’ve expanded it.”

Hardcase groaned and rolled his eyes, and Kix couldn’t really blame him. Sometimes trying to get actual words out of Dogma was worse than pulling teeth. “How expanded?”

“Like the secondary explosions could take out at least a quarter of the base, expanded,” Dogma replied in a surprisingly airy tone. “And like you’d really want to be elsewhere when you set it off. Rex, Jesse, how close are you to getting them out?”

“We’re on the right level,” Jesse answered immediately. “Unfortunately I think they’ve picked us up on their surveillance, but they haven’t actually managed to slow us down yet. About ten minutes.”

“How long to get out?”

“Shit, another twenty?”

Dogma hummed shortly. “Not good. And if I blow an outer wall for you?”

Jesse stuttered. “You can do that?”

There was a brief silence, and when Dogma spoke again he sounded - relaxed, even sly. He sounded, bizarrely, like he was smiling. “Hey, Hardcase?”

“Yeah?”

“Thought I’d get you something pretty for your Nameday.”

Kix was pretty sure his eyes opened so wide they were trying to abandon the rest of him, and he might have muttered something about explosions making poor gifts. Maybe. He wasn’t sure he had a voice anymore.

“Are they _flirting?_ ” Jesse sounded horrified. “Gods, can we just _leave_ them here?”

“Pretty sure your boyfriend would object to that,” Rex grumbled.

Kix didn’t have much to add, really. “Get me out.”

“No, I’m taking Kix. Those two though -” Jesse voiced with an exaggerated shudder.

Hardcase feigned offense very well. “Hey, you need me to blow things up for you!”

“Do we?” Kix asked faintly.

“First charge set. Your countdown for ten minutes begins now,” Dogma’s voice carried over the comms, clear and commanding.

“Uh, right - best get a move on -”

Fifteen minutes later they were coughing up dust, standing at the edge of a crater. Unable to make an exit in time, they’d sheltered in the cells instead, which Hardcase had declared structurally sound anyway. Dogma stood, hand absently brushing along a large - gun? - at his hip.

“Is that for me?” Hardcase asked, finally.

“You don’t get to carry it until you can stand upright,” Dogma told him with a smile, glancing over his shoulder at where Hardcase was leaning heavily against Kix.

“Damn.”

“She is a very nice little beastie, though,” Dogma admitted, looking down at the gun he was still petting. “Saved my life. Gave me a little extra time on the fuses.” He looked up suddenly. “That was a pretty fireball, though, yeah?”

Hardcase grinned back at him. “The best.”

 


End file.
